Paranor KYD: 9 Immortals

The party used the ritual to reactivate the titan, instructing it to journey to the Town of the Aged Ox and there follow his commands. The titan then carried the party back to Kisada, who took over its direction. The party then went into the swamp to find and destroy the star spawn, to fulfil their obligation to Kisada. They found the beast and slew it, taking a chunk of it that showed the burns from Kisada’s jade weapon as proof. In the swamp, Breeze also found a Heartwood tree where she could safely store the Amberlight, knowing that no one else could find it.
When the party arrived back at the Town of the Aged Ox, Kisada announced that he would go back into the swamp with the party to slay the other star beast, leaving his son in charge. He told them that Saelen would be there to see the party when they returned. The party and the Fortune then journeyed several hours away from town so that Kisada could whisper his last words on to one of the Black Scrolls, thereby giving up his immortality. He asked the party to leave him there to die.
The party went back to town, where everyone was sad to see that Kisada had not survived. They met with Saelen, who revealed that he was not a student of the Ambasador—he was spying on the ambasador. The party remembered that Cinderchoke, the dragon, had told them that the ambasador was someone the party had met and that he wanted to hurt dragons. The party decided that meant either “Dichotomous” Rex or Barghest. Saelen revealed that he was a two-souled—a kalashtar—so he could project what he wanted others to see him as right into their minds. He used that power to show the party what the ambasador truly looks like: a milky-white elf with black cheatah-like marks beneath his eyes.
The party went back to Three Walls. They asked Malachai if he would lead an army of freed slaves for a while, and he agreed. Saffron orchestrated an “accidental” bumping into Rex so that she could press the Worrystone to his scales. He did not become a pale elf, so the party decided that Barghest must be the ambasador. They consulted with Celia and Malachai regarding the remaining immortals, and decided that after tracking down Barghest, they would go south to seek out The Alchemist.

After speaking with Kisada, the party went north to meet his twelve sons the obsidian titan. On the way, they used Uragirimono‘s calling stone and asked what they could tade him for the animating slip of paper that had been lost to him at the casino. He said he would give it to the party in exchange for them finding a leader (a prince or a prophet) for the freed slaves of the Maker. The party agreed and were given a month to complete their task.
A few days later, they arrived at the ruins of the Maker’s workshop and foudn the sons of Kisada waiting. They told the party that the machines were gating in waves of attackers at the home of Arn Stonebrow, and they could teleport the party there to save them, but there was the matter of the party wanting to kill their father to deal with first.
The brothers agreed to send all of the party to Arn’s village except for Arn himself, so that Arn and the brothers, all devout followers of Eldil, could settle the matter according to the Council of Thirteen. They would fight to the death, and whomever was left standing would go save Arn’s town. If Arn could kill all but one of the brothers, the last son of Kisada would take him father’s place guarding the Village of the Aged Ox.
Arn agreed.
So, one of the brothers had his dragon companion open a portal to Arn’s home, and once the dragon and party were gone, Arn battled the sons of Kisada, one by one. He eventually bested all of them except for one brother, who chose life instead of honor, and Arn was given the Amberlight, which would seal the portals that the machines were using to get to his home.
The rest of the party held back the waves of robots until Arn arrived, and then the dragon took the entire party back to the obsidian titan.

The party set off after burning down the nameless village/rescuing the nameless
baby. Saffron Greywall was rather taken with the child, and therefore avoided
danger as the party marched southward, toward the Village of the Aged Ox.

They marched without incident for two days as the forest around them gradually
thinned.

Upon nearing an abandoned watchtower, the party was attacked by more starspawn.
They overcame the foul beasts fairly easily, but discovered a disturbing fact:
one of the spawn had adapted to feed on ash. Nevertheless, the party burnt the
remains of the creatures and carried onward.

Near nightfall, the party sought out shelter in a particularly tall clump of
bushes. Inside, they found an abandoned camp. Exploring further, they found
that much of the camp equipment was useless or empty. They chose to stay in the
brushy clearing anyway, and went to sleep. On Arn‘s watch, the party was
surprised (sleepy dwarf!) by a group of super-specialized machines. The
Clockwork Skulks, in particular, seemed to be able to penetrate the party’s
defenses and strike with near-lethal force. The Clockwork Moths also presented
difficulties, but were unable to effectively use their stunning power more than
once. Eventually, the party successfully drove off the Moths and defeated the
other machines.

Two days later, the party reached the rise that shelters the Village of the Aged
Ox. There, they witnessed the destructive power of a huge Starspawn as it
rushed towards the town’s lone defender – a boy, perhaps 12 years old. At the
last moment, a giant of a man sprung forth from a concealed pit and dragged the
beast down. He pummeled it with his fists and with Jade, but the monster
escaped. Children rushed out from the village to hug and congratulate the hero,
and the party swept in to investigate.

The party learned that the behemoth was indeed Kisada, [[The Fortune | the Fortune of
Persistence]]. He quickly relieved Saffron of the burden of caring for the
orphan, and handed the child over to one of the village women. He determined the
party’s intent easily, and separated from the rest of the village to discuss it.
In the end, he agreed to give up his immortality and his life for the greater
good. In exchange, the party must:
1) Find the Obsidian Titan, reactivate it, and bind it to guard the Village.
2) Meet with Kisada’s sons at the Titan to determine who will lead the Village
after he departs.
3) Destroy the escaped Starspawn.

In addition, Kisada agreed to call Saelen in to talk to the party. They are
scheduled to meet again in 3 weeks at the Village.

The session began with the party standing in the high stakes room. Oak entered the room and Elias Drakethorn charged him. Oak called a beam of sunlight on the vampire, and Elias fell to the ground, convulsing in the light.
Oak indicated to the party that he’d like to have a meal and conversation with the party before they kill each other, so that the victor would know whom he had killed. The party hesitantly agreed, after Oak released Elias to crawl from the room.
Small tables were brought in, and the party sat in a circle with Oak, each eating their own food and drinking their own drink. Oak explained that he would answer any of their questions in exchange for any new or interesting information the party could give him. Arn Stonebrow was the first to grab Oak’s interest, when he introduced himself as a Forgeborn and revealed that he had been incarnated and given Forgeborn’s own Axe. Oak seemed delighted at this information. Falchion told Oak about how she also returned from the dead and gave him the last words of the fallen immortals. Breeze revealed that the party was the basis for the ghost stories about the Moth in the Gears, Empty Shell, Forge of Remaking, and Dark Daughter of the Unmaker. Shivers tried to impress Oak by holding his breath.
In exchange for their stories, Oak told his own, revealing much of his past. He told the party about the Court of Stagnation, and how they were causing trouble between the seasonal fairy courts. He also explained what he knew about King Nothing and the remaining Immortals. All of his information pointed the party to the Town of the Aged Ox as their next destination.

Eventually, everyone got around to killing each other, and the Winter Night joined the fight. Oak, a true elf, possessed the abilities of all three elf-ish races, and he was a swordmage. He fought fiercely, eventually fracturing into three perfect versions of himself, an elf, an eladrin, and a drow, as he neared death. The party struck down all three of his incarnations within seconds of each other and Ro-Kang caught the Oak’s last words on one of the Black Scrolls. Falchion took up Oak’s fallen relic sword, Like Hell You Do, and offcially resumed the use of her birth name, Saffron Greywall.

On their way south, Arn made contact with Mr. Honey, telling him all they had learned from Oak about the fairy infighting. Like Hell You Do did not appreciate the party assisting the Summer Court of fairies and its concordance decreased. Later, the party came across the remains of a town that had been assaulted by Star Spawn. They destroyed the remaining abominations and burned down the shell of the village to make sure there were no more star spawn. As the fire licked up the sides of the building, Saffron suddenly found herself running into one of the burning buildings. She pried up the boards of the house’s floor with her newly acquired sword, revealing an unconscious child lying in her dead mother’s arms. Saffron scooped up the girl and carried her from the destroyed building. Like Hell You Do approved of Saffron saving someone from a fire and its concordance increased.
Saffron found herself strangely attached to the newly orphaned girl. She vowed to care for the child herself until she could deliver the girl to a safe and loving home.

The party began the session in Three Walls. They tracked down Malachai to see if he had any new information for them, but he was less than helpful. He did reveal that wearing the Crown of Nava would let the wearer discern scrying, but alsl drive them mad. The party left Malachai and Three Walls to head to the gambling house owned by The Elf.

After several days on the road, the party arrived at the gambling house, were asked to stow their weapons, and entered. In the first room, many simple games of cards and dice were being played by various groups. Breeze inquired about going further into the casino and was told that the party must draw notice. Arn, Shivers, and Falchion played various games, throwing around money and makign their presence known for a while before the party was invited to the high stakes room.

In the high stakes room, the party engaged in several games of luck and skill. Falchion and Shivers played Liar’s Dice with a man called Parcival. Breeze won a skill game called Talent versus Felara, a member of the Booktenders. Shivers lost several magic items to Uragirimono playing Items of Interest. Arn lost many healing surges in a game called Pain against a chained devil. Falchion lost a lot of blood but won some money playing Vampire’s Bluff with Elias Drakethorn. She also won a game of Mastery versus Xn’Keth, the mind flayer (to everyone’s surprise). The whole party participated in Run through the Woods (blindfolded), and Falchion tied for the win with an elf called Pailan and the halfling, Lowlow Luckstealer, splitting the pot. Shivers lost at Endurance, facing one of his old fellow monks from the Caves of the Empty Bowl, the Master of Thirst. Arn played Dice with Lowlow Luckstealer, going one-and-one. Shivers played Guillotine with Mr. Sharps, a Summer Court Master, and lost. Breeze played High Card with Werlich, the hedge wizard, going one-and-one (which thoroughly confused Werlich, who was surprised he could lose).

After much gambling, the high stakes room’s pit boss, a woman called Opal (who had registered the party for Run through the Woods), informed the party that they had garnered the attention of the casino’s master and she threw all of the other patrons and game masters our of the room. The party waited for Oak to arrive, but were instead surrounded by enemies coming in from both doors to the room. One end of the room filled with a contigent of Stagnation fairies and a group of casino guards, archers, blocked the other exit.

Arn quickly dumped everyone’s weapons and holy symbols out of his Bag of Holding, and the party engaged their opponents. As the archers drew back to fire on Arn, a misty form shot into the room, and Elias Drakethorn coalesced between Arn and the archers, ripping the covering off his holy symbol and calling forth the dead god, Tck’Arrith, to absorb the arrows (and burning his hand on his own holy symbol).

While Elias dealt with the archers, the party picked off the Stagnation fairies, though they had to deal with being dazed, stunned, immobilized, and restrained at various times during the fight. Finally, all the fairies and archers were dead, and the party took a short rest. Elias informed the party that Oak was on his way and offered them healing in the form of his Lay on Hands ability. The party thanked Elias for his help and readied to face the master of the casino.

In Three Walls, the party did some shopping and checked for rumors. Breeze tried to locate Barghest, but the other druid had moved on from the area. The party was mildly concerned that Malachai had gone missing, but were distracted by other issues. They also considered assisting Celia West with her anxiety and feeling of being watched, but a fresh tale of banditry caught their attention.
Some local woodmen had been robbed of all possessions down to their boots and left tied to the town wall by an infamous bandit called Yurick, the Bastard. The party made inquiries, and both Ansgar Barrelchest and “Dichotomous” Rex told them that the Bastard was rumored to be in possession of an item of interest: A worry stone believed to have belonged to Phayer.
The party tracked down the bandit and his eladrin and minotaur minions making camp a few days NW of Three Walls. Diplomacy was tried, but the Bastard declared that there had been “Enough Talk!” and initiated combat. Breeze balefully polymorphed the Bastard into a helpless newt that Falchion viciously attacked. Once de-newted, the Bastard began teleporting randomly throughout the battlefield, but Falchion pursued. The Bastard finally knocked the avenger unconscious and demanded the party cease hostilities on threat of her death, but Arn healed her, and as she regained consciousness, the Bastard surrendered.
The party took back the items that had been stolen and demanded a small item in addition—the worry stone—but the Bastard did not have it. The party tried to question the bandit further, but were interrupted by the arrival of a furious summer court hit squad. The bandits fled and the party defended against the newly arrived fairies. One of the fairies was screaming about the Winter Knight.
The party knocked two of the fairies unconscious and bloodied the third when a new player entered the battle: Mr. Honey. He dismissed the other fairies and sat the party down for a chat, explaining that someone was trying to start a war among the fey courts. He revealed the location of Phayer’s Worry Stone, which was buried nearby. He explained the relic’s power as Falchion dug the small stone up. It revealed the true nature of whomever held it, and could be used to identify whatever shape-changing entity was causing the trouble in the Fey realms. To prove that the stone worked, Mr. Honey touched the stone, revealing his true form to Arn (in a weird parallel to the dream Arn had, when Lucius learned the true name of a creature).
That night, Arn dreamed of bees tattooing the the inside of his nose and Falchion dreamed of a life that was not her own.

The party gained the benefits of a long rest after defeating the energy beam room. They ascended to fight The Last.

Upon entering the portal, the players found themselves standing on tiny worlds that circled a central point. Arn and Falchion landed on the ice world, while Breeze and Shivers landed on a fiery one. The Last stood on a central world, out of reach of both other worlds. Crystalline warriors swarmed the party. The party quickly discovered that the warriors caused the planetoids to emit huge blasts of energy when they were destroyed. The party then directed these blasts, in alternating fashion, at the Last – destroying his shields.

The plane shook, and the Last shifted space around himself. He grew larger, more brutish, and capable of taking multiple attacks. The brute form proved too weak for the party, and the Last shifted the planes again.

As the plane shifted, the two planetoids collapsed into one another. Soon, a face emerged as the Last inhabited their forms. It quickly swallowed Arn, and began to wear down the other party members. Eventually, they were able to defeat it, but Arn’s life was lost in the process.

The party used the Black Scroll “Reincarnation” to bring Arn back – as a Forgeborn Dwarf. They then searched the island where the Tower of Nava had been, finding a suit of Jade Scale armor, a legendary Dwarven Axe, and some other loot. They also acquired the Black Scroll “Extinction.”

They returned to Three Walls, where Celia “helped” Arn to identify the axe, and gave them some information on more immortals. In the end, the party decided to head after The Elf.

The characters continued to ascend the tower. They encountered a puzzle room with sliding platforms, which required them to split up. After struggling with the platforms, the party was able to vanquish the last enemy and move on.

The next room contained a number of dangerous barriers that could be switched on and off. Falchion tried to teleport, but was struck by a Spriggan as she stepped into the Feywild. Eventually, the party managed to switch the barriers so that they could move on.

The party also found a relic of Nava – one of The Lost. Upon touching it, Shivers fell unconscious and dreamed about a life that was not his, opening up The Key.

The party left Three Walls en route to the lair of The Last. They stopped in Myris on the way to see the legendary city and do some more research. Shivers, thinking of Celia back in Three Walls, decided to hire a Book Tender to research the price of bread in Three Walls ten years ago. For just over 200gp, he was able to find the information Celia wanted, and had it sent to her on official Library letter head by New Myris’ secure mail carriers.

Quite satisfied with their stay, the party left Myris shortly, traveling toward the coast and the small atoll where The Last’s tower was suposedly located. They only had one encounter of note on their way, a midnight visit from an Emissary of Winter, who told us that Thunderclaw, the Blade of Spring, had recently been used in an attack on one of the Winter Blue Dragons. Spring attacking Winter could mean war, and the emissary told us to keep guard of the Winterblade (and the Winter Night, Ro-Kang), to keep them safe. She also implied her personal opinion that the Springblade might not be in the possession of an agent of Spring, and that she thought Shivers might be better suited to the duties of the Winter Knight.

With no further faerie intervention, the party made it to the small atoll where the tower should be. It took them a while to notice the building, which was a mirror-faced octagonal structure. Falchion realized that this was the fabled home of the now-dead Goddess, Nava, She Who Does Not Blink.
Examining the structure, they found it was covered in wards and spells. Arn searched through the chaos to find the ward to open the structure and did so. The party entered the low building (the rest of the mirrored tower floats above the bottom building, held in place by magical forces) and heard the voice of The Last, demanding to know why they had come. The party tried diplomacy, asking an audience, but the disembodied voice simply told them to leave. Falchion coldly told the voice that it was in possesion that belonged to Olghast that must be returned. In response, The Last called red and blue crystals to assault the party, and two pits in the room began to crackle with electricity that slowly rose toward them.

The mirror at the far end of the room spit out more crystals as they defeated them, and after a few waves, the crystals conbined to create stronger constructs that teleported around the room, making the fight very difficult. Eventually, enough had been destroyed to power up the portal in the mirror frame, giving the party access to the upper portion of the tower. They took a short rest and then jumped through the portal.

In the room above, they found more crystalline creatures and a room covered in runes and sigils. In the center of the room was a three-part obelisk that was also covered in runes. The party realized that they needed to turn the faces of the obelisk to mirror the patterns on the walls to solve the puzzle, and worked on doing that while engaging the monsters. One of the creatures caused party members to attack adjacent allies, so the party tried to stay out of blast range but kept being immobolized and blocked by walls of fire. After a grueling battle, all of the crystal critters were still and the portal was completely powered up. The party took a few moments to compose themselves, watching through the glass floor as the lightning from the section below continued to rise toward them, before jumping through the next portal.

At the beginning of the session, the party were in the middle is an extended rest, sleeping in the entry of the underground mine. They heard some noise from behind them, deeper within the hole and were surprised to see the tinker. He explained that they were about to face The Maker himself, and that they much defeat him quickly or all would be lost. The tinker gave the party his Naming Stone and his name, Uragirimono, and told them that if they needed him at any point after the battle, they could heat the stone in a fire and say his name. He also said that if they trivialized his time, he would simply change his name and be free of them.

They party finished their rest and then took the field, finding a large mesa had lifted up from the ground. They climbed to the top to find a lone figure standing in the middle of the clearing. The party engaged the figure and he spawned a multitude of copies. The clay blanks attacked mindlessly, but The Maker was able to switch his consciousness between the forms, keeping the party of their toes. Eventually, they had destroyed enough clay men for The Maker to try a different tactic. He abandoned the clay men and raised an obsidian titan from the ground. Its perfect face and four gem-studded hands come up through the earth and began attacking the party who had to find paths to climb the construct’s limbs to crack the gems powering them. Leaping from the creatures raised fist to its head, the party attacked the gem in the titan’s forehead, finally stilling the construct.

With the titan defeated, The Maker created an army of blank-faced minions, spreading his awareness among them. When the party struck more than one of them down in a single attack, another spawned. When a party member missed with an attack, another copy was created. The party waded through the sea of clay men, striking them down. Eventually, only one clay copy was left, the last shell of the maker, and Shivers caught his last words on one of the Black Scrolls.

The Maker told the party the even The Never-Was Prince doesn’t know who he is, and that the party is too flawed. With his final action, he made the party “more perfect,” marking each of their bodies with a tattoo of something precious to them and binding them closer together.

When the party returned to Three Walls, they were surprised and confused. Streets were not where the party had left them, Kurt’s inn had a new name, and the army of ghosts who had guarded the wall were gone. The Never-Was Prince had touched the town, altering its very fabric, changing the history of the town and its inhabitants. Only Malachai realized that The Prince had been, because he’d felt his presence while out hunting for shoulder blades. He told the party that he would not be trying to scry on that individual ever again. The party asked him to look into The Last.

Three new individuals existed in town, and the party sought them out. Ansgar Barrelchest was building a larger church to Eldil, Celia West was researching the cost of bread during the decade before, and Rex was looking for able-bodied adventurers to seek out riches. The party tried to help all three, but only truly befriended Celia (alienating Rex in the process). They are still on speaking terms with Ansgar, but Celia is their new contact in Three Walls.

In order to win Celia’s trust, the party had to seek out a text she believed to exist in town. Malachai revealed he had possessed the book, but had lost it. He told the party what bits he remembered, including the quotes:

“Near the end of times, the king who never was will be sought by the minions of darkness. Heroes and villains will dream of another life, madmen and lepers will have visions of many deaths.”

“Everything is important. Everyone is someone who wasn’t. Only when that which never was comes close to pass will that which must not be, stop.”

Hearing these words, Arn reveals that he has been dreaming of a life not his own: the life of a foreign priest name Lucias.

No other party members have dreamed at all since they were all touched by the Nightmare in the Cave of the Empty Bowl.